Chapter Twenty-Two
When Josie unlocked the door to her office and started to step in, she froze.
She couldn’t tell if it was a scent on the air or something out of place or just her second sight.
Yet at once she knew someone had been here.
Her mind raced to understand how that was possible.
She always kept the office locked. The only other person who had a key was—
Amy Sue.
Her heart lodged in her throat. Whatever Amy Sue had, Shane Wagner now had access to it. Why hadn’t she realized that sooner?
Stepping in, she immediately went to her desk to see if anything had been disturbed. The file cabinets were locked with keys that Amy Sue didn’t have copies for, so she wasn’t worried about them.
Nor did she keep anything confidential dealing with her clients in the desk drawers. But as she sat down, she saw that her top drawer hadn’t been closed all the way. She opened it slowly. Nothing seemed out of place.
As she was closing the drawer, though, she saw her notepad lying on her desk and the pen next to it. She had put the pen in the cupholder before she’d gone to the café. She was sure of it. She’d always been a little too fastidious about keeping her items neat.
The notepad still had the information Max had given her about the pen pals and the connection between Grimes and Wagner—but they were in shorthand so whoever had been in here wouldn’t have been able to read them.
Josie had learned shorthand from her grandmother, who’d worked as a secretary before marrying and moving to the farm. It had been the way she and Gram could converse without anyone else knowing what was being said. Amy Sue had tried to learn, but didn’t have the patience.
As she started to rip the top sheet off the notebook and put it back in its spot, she noticed that someone had doodled on several of the symbols. Her heart was again in her throat, making her jump when her office door swung open.
* * *
Amy Sue stopped in the office doorway. “Didn’t mean to scare you,” she said to her sister, surprised how jumpy Josie was. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost. You haven’t been gone from the farm that long that you don’t remember me, have you?”
“Were you in my office earlier?” Josie demanded.
“No,” she said, frowning. She’d known her surprise visit probably wasn’t going to go well, but she hadn’t expected her sister to already attack her. “I haven’t been in your office. Did someone move your plant a quarter inch from where you normally keep it, neat freak?”
“Someone was in my office while I was down at the café,” her sister said.
“Well, it wasn’t me. I just got to town, and I wanted you to be the first to know.
” She stepped in to her sister’s desk and held out her left hand.
The diamond caught the light from the window and shone like a star.
“Shane and I are engaged!” She couldn’t help how excited she was.
Not even her sister’s weirdness could ruin this for her.
“And don’t say that it’s too quick. I’ve known him over a year, writing back and forth all these months. ”
Josie’s mouth opened, then closed like a fish out of water.
Amy Sue rushed on, hoping her sister would see how happy she was and not say anything hurtful. “I know you’ve been skeptical about Shane’s intentions. But this should put your mind at ease. We’re getting married!” She giggled, wanting Josie to be happy for her as she waited for her reaction.
“You can’t marry him.”
Amy Sue stared at her as her heart fell and disappointment filled her. “Stop. Just stop!”
“He’s after the farm.”
She shook her head, tears stinging her eyes as she took a step back while Josie got to her feet and came around the desk toward her.
“Of course, I should have known. Shane couldn’t possibly want to marry me because he loves me.
It’s about the farm. Do you hear yourself?
The farm’s not even in my name!” she cried. “You and Nana saw to that.”
“That’s why he has to marry you and kill the two of us to get his hands on it.”
She blinked at her sister. “Have you lost your mind? Shane’s not a murderer! He’s made some mistakes but he’s not—”
“I’m sorry, but I just found out that Shane and the man who almost killed me, Roger Grimes, knew each other.
It’s too much of a coincidence that they both had pen pals in this area.
Don’t you see? They were both planning to get out at the same time, but Shane’s paperwork got held up.
Shane and Grimes set this whole thing up. ”
Amy Sue raised her hands to ward off her sister. She couldn’t believe this. She’d known Josie wouldn’t be happy about the engagement, but she couldn’t believe how far she’d go to try to split up her and Shane.
“I refuse to listen to any more of this,” she said as she stepped back until she felt the door behind her.
“Why do you want to poison this for me? I’m in love for the first time in my life with a man who wants to marry me.
” She was crying and hating that she couldn’t stop.
“He loves me, and he wants to make a life with me, have babies, farm… It’s the life I’ve always dreamed of. ”
“I’m so sorry, but that is never going to happen,” Josie said and started to reach for her again, but she waved her off.
“Stay away from me and Shane, you hear me? Stay away from us.” With that, she opened the door and fled.
* * *
Josie’s heart broke as she watched her sister leave in tears. She wished she could take it all back, to pretend to be happy for Amy Sue, but how could she knowing what she did?
Of course Shane wanted to marry her. Now there was nothing stopping him. He would want to move quickly, not waste any time. He had her sister right where he wanted her.
At a knock on her door, Cordell peeked in. “Ready to go?” He seemed to see the expression on her face and came on in. “I know. Shane told me and then Amy Sue came by to show me the ring.”
She rose and he held out his arms and she rushed into them. “He had a key to my office. While I was at lunch, he left me a note.” She shook her head. “It wasn’t anything. Just some doodles so I’d know he’d been here. He wanted me to know that he can get to me anytime he wants.”
As he hugged her tighter, she breathed in his scent, never wanting him to let her go. But he did as he pulled out his phone.
“Which is why we are leaving for the weekend.” He began to tap on his cell phone. “I’m having the locks changed on your office and apartment right now. I’ll have the locksmith leave the keys with Goldie. You can tell her to guard them with her life.”
For the first time today, she felt better. She wasn’t alone in this. “I have my bag packed.” She motioned to it by the door.
Cordell picked it up, set it on her couch and opened it.
“If you’re looking for my black swimming suit—”
“Just checking that Shane didn’t put anything in it. Why don’t you take a look.”
She felt numb at the thought that Shane might have seen her bag, maybe even knew she and Cordell were leaving town for the weekend and put something in there.
At the couch, she went through her bag. She found nothing extra that she could see and checked the side pockets before she replaced the bottle of wine wrapped in a towel that she’d brought and zipped it back up. “Is this going to be my life? Living in fear?”
“No. I promise. I have some ideas I want to run by you, but not right now. Right now, we are going to hit the road. The moment we do, it’s our weekend and nothing is going to spoil it.”
Josie wished she could believe it, but she smiled and tried. She wanted this weekend with Cordell badly. But that darkness she’d seen at a distance was now in town. She could see it drifting down Main Street, peering into windows, circling back toward her.
“Let’s go,” she said, knowing that even Cordell’s new pickup couldn’t outrun it. Shane would be here when she got back, the darkness growing and getting more menacing.
* * *
Amy Sue had planned to make something special for Shane for dinner tonight. She had time. Cordell had taken off with Josie, but Shane had wanted to work late to surprise his boss by how much he would have gotten done.
“Let me know when you’re on the way. I have a surprise for you,” she’d told him when she’d seen him at the hotel.
He had to have seen that she was upset and had been crying when she’d stopped by before leaving town.
But he hadn’t said anything. He knew that her sister was being just awful about the two of them.
“She’s not used to you having anyone, right?
” he’d said the other night. “She probably liked having you to herself and misses that. You should cut her some slack. I’m sure she just wants the best for you.
She probably doesn’t think I’m the best partner,” he’d said with a self-deprecating grin.
“I’ll prove to her I’m the right man for you and the right brother-in-law for her.
We’re going to be the family I’ve always dreamed of. Trust me, she will come around.”
He didn’t know Josie, she thought, as she went into the kitchen at the farmhouse to begin dinner but couldn’t seem to make herself start.
All she could think about was her sister’s reaction to the engagement and the awful things she’d said.
Josie had her mind made up from the start.
Amy Sue couldn’t see her changing it no matter what Shane did.
A thought struck her. What if she could prove to her sister that she was wrong?
She turned around and left the kitchen to go upstairs to her room.
Shane had moved into the farmhouse with her shortly after Josie had decided to stay in her apartment over her office in town.
He hadn’t brought much to Montana because apparently he didn’t have much.
She couldn’t imagine getting her whole life to fit into a couple of duffel bags she could tie onto the back of a motorcycle.